![]() ![]() The kid is named Bastian, played by Barret Oliver (Kid #2, UNCOMMON VALOR). One thing this opening sequence gets across very clearly is that if you want to see a movie called THE NEVERENDING STORY, you came to the right place. Limahl and Beth Anderson crooning “The Neverending Stoooor-ryyy, ooo ooow ooh oooowoo ooh, the Neverending Stooor-ryyy…” over Giorgio Moroder synths and footage of clouds. Watching it again, I laughed at how quickly it gets into it – not the fantasy world, but the theme song. What the fuck kind of lunatic wants a story without kung fu animals to never end!? It’s absurd! But somehow they make it work. But there was another detail that did stick in my brain, one that I had to question because it seems so fucking crazy: could it possibly be true that there are no kung fu animals in this one at all? Believe it or not, that is true. I did not remember that in this one the kid just reads about the fantasy world, he doesn’t go there. ![]() ![]() I saw it in the theater 39 years ago and I remembered it enough to know WARRIORS kinda ripped off its kid-picked-on-by-bullies-given-large-leatherbound-book-magically-connected-to-a-fantasy-world format. I guess this is a weird reason to revisit a family fantasy classic that’s treasured around the world, but I felt like after spending so much time on WARRIORS OF VIRTUE I had an ethical duty to review another first-English-language-movie-by-an-internationally-acclaimed-director, THE NEVERENDING STORY. ![]()
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![]() ![]() As a result, we no longer have to whip out the Tippex whenever we make a typo, and we don’t have to retype an entire page to fix a paragraph. It might not be able to help with finding a fresh take on a topic or turning the perfect phrase, but it removes some of the friction from the physical act of writing. People wrote and typed brilliant works of art before the word processor came along-but the word processor made the process easier. That’s what good software does: it takes the things we do and gives us more control over them, or combines them in new and useful ways. And yet, at some point during the evolution of the word processor, someone looked at a typewriter and thought, What if I could undo my mistakes? What if I could delete words and lines and paragraphs? What if I could insert that missed word? Word processors such as Word are so ubiquitous that we tend to think of them as little more than digital paper, giving little thought these days to the advantages they bring over paper and ink. You don’t need Scrivener-but then again, you don’t need Word, either. One of the first questions some writers ask when they hear about Scrivener is this: “Why do I need specialised writing software to write my book? I can just use Microsoft Word like most writers!” This is true. ![]() ![]() ![]() Hoffman’s leftist associates, meanwhile, claim he is an innocent victim of police brutality. As he lies in a German neurosurgical unit, paralyzed and unable to speak because the bullet track has traversed his motor cortex and “speech center”, the police assert he was shot in self-defense after trying to attack a policeman with a knife, and are hoping to arrest him as soon as he is fit to leave the hospital. Instead, it is Hoffman who is shot in the head after he breaches a cordon of riot police to enter the youth center, fearing that his wife is trapped inside. “An American in my position would start shooting out the window”, he declares. His angst is immediately evident as he prepares to meet his wife Ann (Angela Winkler), a social worker, who is having an ongoing affair with a leftist organizer, Volker (Heinz Hoening), at a demonstration outside a local youth center scheduled for demolition. Berthold Hoffman (Bruno Ganz), a geneticist working in a Max Planck research institute in Hamburg. In a brief prologue preceding this arresting opening salvo, the audience is introduced to the film’s protagonist, Dr. The resulting frissons experienced by the viewer serve as valid omens that the ensuing viewing experience will not fail to satisfy the intellect, the gut, and the soul. ![]() And the credits roll, over a mesmerizing electronica anthem that periodically populates the sound track of this finely honed political, criminological, medical and human drama. ![]() ![]() ![]() Here there are no droughts, disease, or famine, and peace is everlasting. Now Cerys carries a small bit of the curse-the magic-in her blood, a reminder of the day she lost everything"-Publisher marketing.Īshley Poston, acclaimed author of Heart of Iron, returns with a dark, lush fairy tale-inspired fantasy for fans of Sara Raasch and Susan Dennard.Ĭerys is safe in the Kingdom of Aloriya. Cerys knows this all too well: when she was young, she barely escaped as the woods killed her friends and her mother. ![]() But as Aloriya prospered, the woods grew dark, cursed, and forbidden. It has been this way for hundreds of years, since the first king made a bargain with the Lady who ruled the forest that borders the kingdom. About the Book "Cerys is safe in the Kingdom of Aloriya. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In Means of Ascent the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer/historian, chronicler also of Robert Moses in The Power Broker, carries Johnson through his service in World War II and the foundation of his long-concealed fortune and the facts behind the myths he created about it. ![]() Caro's life of Lyndon Johnson, which began with the greatly acclaimed The Path to Power, also winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, continues - one of the richest, most intensive and most revealing examinations ever undertaken of an American President. ![]() ![]() ![]() To be honest when I first started reading I found it hard to keep from laughing because in Lynchian absurdity, everyone is screaming most of their lines right from the get-go. However, like Stephen King at his best, Ito is able to take a goofy-on-the-surface idea and turn it into something unsettling as it develops and he adds layers. ![]() Unless you already have a deep-seated fear of the ocean and everything in it, evil fish running around on robot legs probably doesn’t sound that scary. Without further ado, let’s get into GYO: The Death-Stench Creeps the first book by Junji Ito I ever read, and my first real primer to Ito’s style. Ito is notable for his incredible command of body horror, with zooming in close-ups of grotesque imagery filling entire pages after dread and tension have built up to breaking point. Japanese comics and literature are experiencing a bit of a heyday in the English-speaking world, with publishers like VIZ, Yen Press, Vertical, Kodansha, and others pumping out translated, phenomenal works left and right at reasonable prices. For many, such as myself, he’s the gateway to Japanese horror manga in general, with his list of influences giving more of a primer to check out before you delve into explorations of new blood in the horror manga scene. Junji Ito is and has been THE horror mangaka for decades now. ![]() Spooky season is upon us and that means it’s time to read a ton of Junji Ito. The stench creeps through the streets, through walls, and seeps into your skin. ![]() ![]() Which are true and which are false? Is there a single explanation, or were the painter’s actions driven by a combination of factors? 13 hypothesesĪbout half the hypotheses listed by Runyan interpret van Gogh cutting off his ear as an unhealthy response to personal problems. Runyan, a research psychologist at the University of California-Berkeley, outlined 13 prevailing hypotheses surrounding the injury. ![]() ![]() Not long after being discharged from the hospital, he checked into an asylum to receive treatment for an array of undiagnosed medical conditions, many of which supposedly manifested as voices in his head.Īcademic studies of van Gogh’s work are often accompanied by studies of his psychology. ![]() While the incident did not immediately end van Gogh’s artistic career, it did mark the end of his life as an independent and semi-functional adult. ![]() ![]() ![]() The Cataclysm has led to mage storms that cause magic to be unstable, meaning that many that had the mage ability have lost their powers, or are seriously weakened. The council members consist of Skandranon, Amberdrake, Cinnabar, Judeth, and Snowstar. The city has established a council to govern all aspects of the city life. The city is named based on its shape, a large gryphon preparing for flight over the ocean, and the white gryphon, Skandranon. They have traveled very far and have reached the ocean, and now have established a city called, White Gryphon. The k'Leshya tribe of the Kaled'a'in nation, along with the gryphons, some hertasi, tervardi, and kyree, have fled from the gates that they escaped before the Cataclysm from the end of the mage wars. ![]() The story takes place ten years after the end of The Black Gryphon. ![]() ![]() Nevertheless, Toby, Alex, Zee, and Gary try their luck to escape the most feared prison of all mankind. The night before, Donovan is one of the boys who is taken away by the wheezers, and the next day, one of the inmates rats them out and Toby is badly wounded from the over-sized explosion. However, the nighttime escape plan doesn't go smoothly. It is a tour de force of action and adventure. Praise for Death Sentence (Escape from Furnace Book 3): 'In this third installment of the Furnace series, Gordon-Smith has pulled out all the stops. ![]() ![]() With Donovan's, Zee's, and Toby's help, Alex manages to prepare the escape by collecting methane-filled latex gloves and storing them in the closed off chipping room. Execution is an Escape from Furnace book from Alexander Gordon Smith. ![]() The usual routine involves hard labor, lockdowns, and gag-worthy food, the ugly Warden who everyone is frightened by, skinless and horrible-looking mutant dogs that are allowed to chew inmates alive, the hulk-sized guards in black suits, 'wheezers' that wear gas masks and take kids way at night, vicious gangs and their lust for power and fights, but also his main friendship with Donovan who helps him stay alive.Īlex soon realizes that the only way to survive is to escape is through an underground aquifer which is below one of the mining rooms where they have been working at. ![]() ![]() How do men behave when women are (mostly) not around? Alas, the answer is: not terribly well. ![]() Her story, which runs to more than 400 pages, encompasses not only such thorny matters as social class and environmental destruction it may be the best book I have ever read about sexual harassment. But its mood overall is deeply melancholic. Yes, it’s funny at moments Beaton’s low-key wryness is present and correct, and her drawings of people are as charming and as expressive as ever. ![]() K ate Beaton’s new graphic memoir, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, is, I think, going to come as something of a surprise to her fans, for it could hardly be more different in tone from her popular larky strip Hark! A Vagrant, in which she gently sends up historical figures such as Napoleon and Ada Lovelace. ![]() |